Friday, July 6th, I celebrated my 62nd birthday. I was asked what I wanted to do on my birthday so I told Jane that I wanted the grandkids and her to take me to see Spiderman and go out to eat. We enjoyed the show and the meal was good too, but the best part was spending the evening with family. The only way it could have been better is if the Parzens, Tracie and Jeremy, could have been here with our newest granddaughter Georgia.
I hope it is obvious to the world that family is very important to me. Having loving relationships with children and grandchildren are important and must be one of our most important life priorities. Just as we show our love for our children and grandchildren, as Mother’s and Father’s, we must allow our Savior to work within our lives to provide that witness of love for them through Him. They will see in us His love and look for that “Spirit of Love” for themselves.
We must be strong and faithful in our love for our God. Remember the words of Joshua, “but as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.”
Have a blessed day! Tell those in your family that you love them and show them your love is from God through you.
This is Memorial Day and it is a day of remembering and honoring those who have given so much for their country. While this can be a time of sorrow as we remember those who have sacrificed everything up to and including their lives, we must also remember why so many have sacrificed so much. Our freedom and our way of life depends on their sacrifice. So lets also remember those who are currently serving our country in all of the military armed services. Let’s remember them in our prayers. Pray for their safety, for peace and for sanity in this crazy world we live in.
As we are praying let’s remember that there is nothing in the teachings of Jesus Christ that supports war. His way is a way of peace that reaches out in love to all. Let’s remember that as believers in God and Jesus as the Christ we should be praying for our country to find peaceful solutions to all disagreements in this world. Too many times throughout history men have taken destructive paths in the name of Jesus and we must always remember that it is not a teaching of Jesus to cause harm to anyone.
So we must pray for our country and it’s leadership. Pray that they will seek peaceful solutions to every crisis we are facing as a country. When our leadership chooses or is forced into military action, then we must pray the action we take will be quick and decisive with little or no loss of life on either side. We must pray that all who are involved will come home safely and if they make the ultimate sacrifice then we must pray for their families to be filled with the grace of God and be able to reach out to the world with the love of Jesus Christ. Pray for all of those who serve in times of war because so many suffer from the stress of war and all of its horrors. Pray that they may be able to return home and live a life of peace with pride in their service to their country.
Well I guess the question is “Are you praying for those in the military, past and present, for your country, for those who have suffered loss of any kind?” I believe that our prayers for those who are or have been in service to our country and their families are the best way for us to remember and honor them.
Have a blessed Memorial Day by spending at least a part of it in prayer, Randy
Jane and I attended a funeral Sunday afternoon and the funeral began with this song, Norman Greenbaum’s “Spirit in the Sky.” The video was taken from youtube and I thought it was well done. It was uploaded by “utuber423.” It has been a while since I heard this song but it sure brought back some memories. The song while not used in many funeral services is really pretty appropriate and relevant to the Christian message that you will hear when you go to most United Methodist funerals.
The funeral was ended with the Pastor singing “How Great Thou Art” and he sang it beautifully. What I received from the funeral was a picture of how the person who passed lived his life. I heard it described this way before, “with both feet on the gas wide open and when the end comes slide sideways into the grave.” This person lived his life as a friend to all and as a friend of Jesus Christ. That pretty much captures the Christian message doesn’t it. I have a friend in Jesus and He is going to recommend me to the Spirit in the Sky. I like that….
Last night at Wesley United Methodist Church we held a Holy/Maundy Thursday Service. We read from John 13:1-17, 31-35 and from 1 Corinthians 11:23-26. Read the Passion of Christ from John 18:1-19:42 and received Holy Communion.
We received Holy Communion last because we wanted the Passion of Christ to be fresh on our minds and in our hearts when we received the gift He has given us.
We are fast closing out the season of Lent. A time when we should be focusing more on Christ and less on ourselves. Remembering Jesus’ teachings about being servants to all. In Jesus’ day the lowliest of lowly jobs was to have to wash someone’s feet. The footwear of choice was a sandal of some sort and feet were usually pretty dirty. Walking around in the streets of Jerusalem was a dusty endeavor with all kinds of animal droppings and such to be dodged so it is pretty easy to understand why Jesus used such a lowly example of servant hood to example to His disciples what it meant to be a servant to others. He showed them in His washing of their feet that the love He had for them was able to go to extremes for them. Even the extreme of willingly, voluntarily giving His very own life for them. In giving His life He exampled the very depths of suffering that He would go to because He loved them (us) all so much. Such depths as being beaten, spit upon, whipped in the most cruel and punishing way to cause the most damage without causing death. Then He was paraded through the streets carrying His own Cross to be nailed to it and left to die.
Who among those you know would be willing to do that for the one’s you love! Many over the centuries have given their lives for what they believe in. They have become Martyr’s for the cause and love of Jesus Christ. That is the extreme example so what do you do in your every day life to example Jesus’ love for everyone you meet every day. That is really why He gave himself up for us. To help us think about thinking about others. How do you serve every day? What are your thought’s about people and who they are? Why do you ignore those in need? Questions we all need to dig deep down into to search our own hearts and maybe we can allow the Holy Spirit to work within us.
Have a blessed day by being the servant to the world and the one’s you love that Christ calls you to be,
A scene from my life in Church at St. John’s UMC in West Orange, Texas came to mind the other day and it got me to thinking. Many years ago we were having an evening worship service and during several of the songs a lady who had been visiting our church began to jump up during the song, dancing around and holding up her fingers at the mention of different names. Certain names would be represented by certain numbers. When I asked our Pastor at the time what was going on with the lady he told me that she believed in Numerology. Check out Wikipedia for a definition of Numerology.
I am not a Numerologist nor do I believe in Numerology. But I do place a lot of faith in Numbers. Numbers such as 3:16 found in the Gospel of John or 22:37-39 found in the Gospel of Matthew. There is 13:1-13 found in Paul’s 1st letter to the Corinthians or 3:1-17 found in his letter to the Colossians. There is 4:11-13 in 1 John and so many more that remind us of God’s love for each and every one of us.
So I guess you could say I believe in numbers. Those numbers that lead us into a divine relationship with our God and His Son. An individual and personal relationship that we each can find in the scriptures found in the Holy Bible and experience if we give our heart to Him.
Don’t let belief in some other way deceive you or distract you away from God’s way of love and peace in this world. There is but one way to eternal life and that is through belief in Jesus Christ as the Son of God. His Holy Spirit is here touching you right now. All you have to do is acknowledge Him and give your life to Him.
Mark 1:40-45 – 40 A leper came to him begging him, and kneeling he said to him, “If you choose, you can make me clean.” 41 Moved with pity, Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, and said to him, “I do choose. Be made clean!” 42 Immediately the leprosy left him, and he was made clean.
As I read this scripture from the Gospel of Mark I was struck with the desire this outcast had to be healed from this disfiguring, crippling, slow death disease. Jesus shows us His compassion in His willingness to heal this man. We see the Leper’s desire in his daring to even think about approaching a group of Jewish men walking down the road. This leper came to Jesus even though he knew that if he got within 50 paces the Law said that the men were within their right to throw stones at him to keep him at a safe distance. He also was required by Law to shout unclean whenever he was coming upon people. Can you just imagine the compassion that led Jesus to walk up to this man and touch him even though under the Law Jesus would be considered unclean himself. I don’t know but it seems to me that Jesus was there alone with the Leper. The disciples probably kind of hung back to keep the proper distance.
This thought pattern led me to think of how many of us truly seek healing from the touch of Jesus Christ. Many of us are plagued by diseases of the heart, mind and soul. Our spirits are held back and our spiritual growth is stunted because we hang on to the disease we have. It could be drugs or alcohol or sex or pornography or greed or selfishness or jealousy or many other diseases that cripple our souls. Jesus wants us to seek Him out like this leper did. He wants us to call out to Him because we want to be healed by Him. He can and will set us free from the disease that is plaguing us. Is the life you lead making you feel unclean? Do people shun you because of your actions? Seek out Jesus and call on Him. Seek His healing touch. Then go out and tell everyone who healed you.
Wesley United Methodist Church, Orange TX 